Adam Kirsch

Half Human

The German Jewish writer Joseph Roth, whose letters are newly translated, chronicled the death of 19th century Europe and the rise of its darker heir

Robin Cembalest

Consequence

Sol LeWitt’s minimalist installations for synagogues and Jewish institutions have given the late conceptual artist an afterlife he’d approve of

Marjorie Ingall

Fear Factor

Holocaust books for children can be terrifying—for adults. How do we teach our kids about history without scarring them for life?

Josh Lambert

Primary Sources

Five Books: Jews in film, Jews and booze, the poisonous sound of children’s voices in Ben Marcus’ novel, Tony Judt’s last conversations, and more

Liel Leibovitz

Monomaniacal

The newest George Lucas production, Red Tails, forces a Star Wars nerd to come to terms with a troubling philosophy

Judith Miller

They Shoot Horses

Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of War Horse saps the imaginative power of the play in favor of sentimentality

Lee Smith

Rationale

The question policy-makers should focus on isn’t whether Iran would use a nuclear weapon, but how a bomb would embolden an already reckless regime

Liel Leibovitz

Perpetual Movement

Clancy Sigal’s 1961 novel, Going Away, is a primer for the Occupy generation about the futility of despair and the inevitability of change

Adam Kirsch

Earthly Gardens

In The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, Giorgio Bassani’s 1962 novel, an aristocratic Jewish family in Italy tries to wall itself off from the Holocaust

Lee Smith

Minority Interest

Lebanon’s Maronites, threatened by Sunni power, will be the bellwether of the Mideast’s Christians. Could they face the same fate as the region’s Jews?

Timeless

Judaism rejects the notions of beauty that underscore Christian classical music, from Bach to Mozart—but the music still speaks to us

Soviet Unions

An American moves to St. Petersburg, Russia—where Jews were once forbidden to live—and finds Jewishness has social currency, especially for dating

Helpless

The nebbish is the bumbling caricature of a Jewish male, embodied by figures like Woody Allen and George Costanza. Where did he come from?

Heroine Stupor

Wanted Women, a new joint biography of two Muslim women, refuses to distinguish between an al-Qaida terrorist and a feminist intellectual

Nyets

On the eve of yet another Super Bowl without his beloved New York Jets, a lifetime fan sees echoes of Judaism in his tortuous loyalty